Square Dance History Project
The rich story of North American square dance finally has a home in the digital age.

Browse Items (73 total)

  • Subject is exactly "Southern / Appalachian / Big sets"
Moving Image

Appalachian Big Set - Berea- 1993

The Berea Festival Dancers, with caller Teresa Lowder, perform an Appalachian Big Set demonstration at the 1993 Mountain Folk Festival, Berea, Kentucky. The group is introduced by their director, John… View item
Document

Appalachian Circle

A brief look at southern Appalachian circle dances. The author points out how unfamiliar four-couple squares would be to a dance from that region:---A native of the Appalachian Circle country which… View item
Document

Appalachian Squares

This document comes from the Dixie Folk Institute, 1951, and presents a concise description for many common figures that can be used in a big set. View item
Moving Image

Barn Dance - Wisconsin

This is video from an Old-time Barn Dance held in the O'Brien Farms beautifully refurbished barn in Brooklyn, WI. Music provided by the Ambrosia Dance Band (Chuck Hornemann, Paul Kienitz, Peter… View item
Moving Image

Berea Country Dancers - Set Running (1917)

In this re-creation of dances from 1917, the Berea College Country Dancers, under the direction of Ethel Capps, show several figures described by Cecil Sharp in his Country Dance Book V. Sharp first… View item
Sound

Big circle dance - Manny Wiener & American Square Dance Group

Caller Manny Wiener leads a big circle dance—here introduced as a Kentucky running set—with members of Margot Mayo's American Square Dance Group. This is a portion of a half hour radio… View item
Moving Image

Big Circle Dance from Carcassonne, KY - Phil Jamison

Phil Jamison led a workshop session on square dances from the southern Appalachians, focusing on dances from different communities in that region. In this video, Phil introduces the big set formation… View item
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Big Circle square dance - Glenn Bannerman

Glenn Bannerman, caller, leads a big circle at MerleFest, 2014 View item
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Big Set - Berea Country Dancers, 2011

The Berea Country Dancers perform a version of the southern mountain Big Set. (Searching for that term will bring up several dozen additional Related Items.) Paul Adkins called the dance from the… View item
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Big Set - Bob Dalsemer

Recorded at Dare To Be Square, Seattle, in 2009. For a more complete view of dances from the weekend, see the audio and video files posted here. View item
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Big set - Silver Spurs

Under the leadership of founder Red Henderson, Spokane's Silver Spurs youth dance troupe here demonstrates a series of figures from the southern Appalachian mountains. Often referred to by the… View item
Moving Image

Big Set 1- Phil Jamison

Phil Jamison calls at the Dare To Be Square weekend held November 18-20, 2011, at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC. This southern Appalachian dance kicked off the Friday night session… View item